‘Oh, come on!’ Sylvana chided. ‘A gorgeous man like that! I bet you fell in love with him on the spot and would have done anything to please him.’
She was about to say, It wasn’t like that, then swallowed the words, realising there was more than a grain of truth in them. ‘Perhaps you’re right. I was attracted to him from the start.’
‘Who wouldn’t be? And having the job as his personal assistant certainly gave you an in. Nothing like constant proximity for catching a guy’s interest,’ Sylvana said smugly.
It was more her departure from the job that had triggered Jake’s pursuit of her. Plus his furious frustration over her subsequent attachment to his grandfather. He’d been goaded into chasing after her, and she’d done the goading out of her own frustration with him. They’d both wanted to win, but they should both take a long hard look at what winning meant in case the end result was a terrible mistake.
‘When are you going to get married?’ Sylvana pressed.
‘I don’t know. We haven’t talked about dates yet.’
‘Mamma will want to know. You can’t not have the wedding here.’
Irritated by her sister’s pushiness, Merlina burst out, ‘Stop laying down the law to me. I won’t be boxed in, Sylvana. This is my life. And Jake’s. We’ll marry wherever we want to.’
Shock ran around the kitchen. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing to stare at her—the rebel who had left the nest, rather than fit in like the rest of them.
‘Merlina…’ her mother started, looking apprehensively at her wayward daughter.
‘Mamma, I’m not even sure I do want to marry him,’ she cried, giving vent to her bottled up anxiety.
Her mother frowned. ‘But you love him, don’t you?’
‘That’s not the point!’
‘You have been a career woman too long, Merlina. You are nervous about being a wife.’
She clutched at that straw, feeling she was drowning in this whole situation. ‘Yes. Yes, I am.’
Her mother nodded knowingly. ‘This is why Jake was concerned about your keeping his ring.’
‘I just don’t know, Mamma. He…he surprised me with it.’
‘He is a good man, Merlina. Your father likes him. Give it time. We will not rush you into planning.’
Relief poured through her. ‘Thanks, Mamma. I’m not ready for planning.’
‘Always you think too much, Merlina. With Jake you should go with your heart.’
There was a chorus of fervent agreement around the kitchen. Merlina was inundated with the joys of being a wife and mother, the comfort of having a partner to share everything with, etc etc etc. It was a constant eulogy to marriage, which only stopped when all the prepared food was taken out to the long tressle table on the back veranda and there was nothing more to do until the meat was cooked.
Merlina tried to take her mother’s advice about not thinking too much. However, she did not regret her outburst in the kitchen. At least the family was now warned that the engagement might not last, and Jake would not be subjected to a whole lot of plans about the wedding. Indeed her mother must have had a private word to her father about their unmarried daughter’s nerves.
He was relatively subdued over dinner, and when it came time for the toasts to the new baby and the newly engaged couple with prized wine from a very good vintage year, he did not rave on about looking forward to more bambinos, nor did he break into grandiose suggestions for setting out marquees on the soccer field for the wedding reception.
Jake was favoured with much kindly attention.
Merlina was treated warily.
Apparently her father did not want his runaway daughter to become a runaway bride.
To his credit, Jake had settled into a good-humoured groove; smiling, laughing, happily joining in general conversations, listening attentively to whatever her family had to say. Underneath the table his thigh pressed against hers, silently communicating the desire for more intimacy with her. She ached for more intimacy with him and knew she didn’t want to give it up, but if a proper marriage was not to his taste, then she really should break up with him.
After dinner, Rosa and Genarro picked their soccer teams, and off they all trotted to occupy the field and get the game under way. The score was three all in the second half when Jake trapped the ball on the wing and passed it to Rosa who was waiting hopefully in a striking position near the other team’s goal. Two of the boys raced to take it off her but Jake intercepted both of them, hoisting them up against his shoulders as they struggled to get away.
It gave Rosa time to dribble the ball forward and kick it past the oncoming goalie into the corner of the net. In her absolute glee at scoring, she pulled her T-shirt up over her head, held her arms high and ran screaming around the sideline as though she’d just won The World Cup. Everyone collapsed in laughter and the game was abandoned, the decision being made that nothing could top that. Jake, Rosa’s hero, carried her off the field, triumphantly seated on his shoulders.
‘I’m always going to have you on my team, Jake,’ Rosa declared.
Always was another big word, Merlina thought.
‘I’ll try to be here for you, Rosa, but I might not get to every family barbecue,’ Jake replied. ‘Sydney is a long way away.’
A whole world away.
And Jake had to be as conscious of it as Merlina was, but he grinned at her and said, ‘That was fun,’ as though he really meant it.
She desperately wanted to get him to herself for a while, time alone together so he would not have to keep up the appearance of enjoying himself with her family. If this was simply a game he was playing, she needed to know. She couldn’t bear the confusion much longer. Dealing with the truth would be infinitely better, even if it was a painful truth.
Since it was a school day tomorrow, the party broke up relatively early so the children could still get a good night’s sleep. The long summer’s day was over, twilight darkening the sky to purple. Everyone pitched in to get the cleaning up done before they left. Farewells were not lingered over though no one neglected to express pleasure in meeting Jake and wishing him and Merlina much happiness together. Her face grew stiff from the effort of holding a smile. She wondered if Jake was wishing them gone as much as she was.
Ironically enough, her mother decided to play Cupid. ‘Why don’t you take Jake for a stroll down the wisteria walk to the orchard while there’s still light enough to see, Merlina?’ she said as they stood on the front veranda, waving off the last car to leave.